وَعَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ هَادُوا۟ حَرَّمْنَا مَا قَصَصْنَا عَلَيْكَ مِن قَبْلُ وَمَا ظَلَمْنَٰهُمْ وَلَٰكِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
Wa ʿala'lladhīna hādū ḥarramnā mā qaṣaṣnā ʿalayka min qabl, wa mā ẓalamnāhum wa lākin kānū anfusahum yaẓlimūn
"And to those who are Jews We forbade what We recounted to you before. We did not wrong them; it was themselves they were wronging."
It must be recorded: the verse comes after the prohibition of the preceding verse (declaring things lawful or forbidden on one's own authority).
And it gives an example: prohibitions laid down for one community in particular. The verse thus shows by a historical example that the source of a ruling is God.
And the end of the sentence must be recorded: wa mā ẓalamnāhum wa lākin kānū anfusahum yaẓlimūn. This sentence occurred word for word in the thirty-third verse. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra.
| Verse | Sentence | About whom |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | Wa mā ẓalamahumu'llāhu wa lākin kānū anfusahum yaẓlimūn | Peoples of the past |
| 118 | Wa mā ẓalamnāhum wa lākin kānū anfusahum yaẓlimūn | A community — those on whom a particular prohibition was laid |
The difference is one word: in the thirty-third verse Allāh is named openly; in the hundred and eighteenth the first person plural is used.
A note required by the method (Method)
The evidence within the text is this: the subject of the verse is a list of prohibitions, not an assessment of an identity. And the second half of the sentence ties the ruling to an act: kānū anfusahum yaẓlimūn.
The clause of the method holds here exactly: "No wholesale ruling is laid down about an ethnic or religious group; what the verse describes are attributes, and whoever bears that attribute is included in it." And at al-ʿAnkabūt, 29/46-47, it was treated in detail how this care is kept; I rely on that treatment.